our first vacation in forever: disney and LA to see family!! a trip i've been trying to take since we moved to tucson, but yes, this was much easier NOT 8 months pregnant...
a few pictures stolen from my mom's camera:
we met up with my BFF meegan at downtown disney for dinner the first night. both kids loved you, auntie meegan! and thanks to roger and mom and dad who took the kids after dinner so we could have a girls' night on the [disney down]town!!
pluto!!
our last vacation day - manhattan beach. it was such a gorgeous day!
thank you to uncle hank for our mickey and minnie!
okay - back to the beginning:
we decided to leave at 1am on wednesday morning - we figured the 8 hour drive would be much easier on the kids if they were sleeping than during the day. the drive wasn't too bad and we arrived in LA in time for brunch with uncle kenny and uncle hank.
after brunch, we headed to the hotel. max completely passed out after his bath. :-)
downtown disney our first night!! we got ella her ears and she and roger made a bracelet together.
miss my BFF - we'll definitely have to make this a once-a-year trip!
welcome to disney, ella!! and you even proved you're tall enough to get on a few rides with height requirements!
after watching the cars movie 18 times in the past 2 weeks, going to cars land was awesome!
max in one of his rare appearances out of the carrier
meeting minnie mouse at her house!!
sitting in pluto's bed at mickey's house
yay!! finally getting to meet mickey
on the boats for it's a small world. sooo roger's favorite ride and song... ;-)
ella LOVED the parade - she loved waving to the princesses
after a full day on thursday, my parents put el and max to bed and roger and i headed out for drinks in downtown disney and then a few roller coasters - LOVE my hubby! thanks mom and dad!!
friday morning, the first ride was autopia!
alice's tea party!! my mom and i made a deal beforehand that we would not spin our teacup. as soon as the ride started, ella grabbed the wheel and started spinning us around... :-(
dumbo the flying elephant
king arthur's carousel
we had a yummy dinner on friday night at the blue bayou - a cajun restaurant sitting on the side of the lagoon at the pirates of the caribbean ride, so throughout the meal, boats were floating by next to our table!
we forgot a spare outfit for max, so he cruised around naked for a little while until we could find a new outfit for him. disney has the BEST baby center for nursing and changing - it made 2 days at a theme park with a baby soooo much easier!!
after dinner, we had time before the light show, so we revisited all of ella's favorite attractions. including it's a small world and (of course), mickey!! after she took pictures with him, she started jumping up and down and saying 'arf! arf!' roger knew her well enough to explain to mickey that she was pretending to be pluto. :-D
ella and roger's fave ride together: the carousel
almost ready for the light show: beer, light up necklace (my mom bought it for ella but she kept taking it off) and a baby strapped to me. hi, unsupermommy at its finest.
FAVE memory of disney: ella and roger watching the world of color show together, completely mesmerized. what a fantabulous way to end our disney vacay.
on saturday morning, we headed up to manhattan beach and met up with meegan again!
after the beach, we met up with uncle hank, uncle kenny, and auntie jenny and uncle peter for dinner.
we drove through the night again and had a day to recover. so thankful for such a wonderful, fun trip!! AND: happy 5 months max!!!
p.s. remember my previous post about ella changing her mind about the colors in her room? well, after lunch, i was changing her diaper on the floor of her bedroom before her nap. she looked up at her bed, shook her head, and then whispered to herself "ella wanted pink. ella got purple. ella wanted pink. ella got purple..." LOL
